The easiest and most practical way for me is to see "Internal" as representing my experience of Body, Feelings etc. and "External" as others experience of Body, Feelings etc.

The heart of the path is so simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are. That is all I do in my own practice.

Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing.

Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques to develop samadhi and many kinds of vipassana. But it all comes back to this-just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle.

mettafuture wrote:That method works for some of the meditations, but, for example, how do you contemplate someone else's body?

Analayo covers that pg. 97.

The heart of the path is so simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are. That is all I do in my own practice.

Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing.

Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques to develop samadhi and many kinds of vipassana. But it all comes back to this-just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle.

"We must constantly keep ourselves under observation--not only others. In fact, let others be our mirror wherein we may discover our own defilements."

In the Satipatthana Sutta, there is a line that goes:

"In this way he abides contemplating the body/feelings/mind/dhammas internally, or he abides contemplating the body/feelings/mind/dhammas externally, or he abides contemplating the body/feelings mind/dhammas both internally and externally..."

This is the part of sutta that Ven. Analayo calls the 'refrain', the modus operandi of satipatthana, if you like. He suggests that the "task of this 'refrain' is to direct attention to those aspects that are essential for the proper practice of each exercise" (p. 92). The refrain also tells us to contemplate the 'arising/passing', with 'bare knowledge and continuous mindfulness' and 'independently without clinging'.

I am, however, curious about the part that says 'internally/externally'. These two terms are not further elaborated in the Satipatthana Sutta. But to sum up Ven. Analayo's arguments very briefly, he examines two ways of interpreting 'internally/externally'.

The first way of interpreting follows the Abhidhammic and commentarial literature, which interprets 'internally/externally' to encompass phenomenon arising in oneself and others. So, when one contemplates body/feelings/mind/dhammas, one contemplates them in oneself and in others. We of course cannot read the minds of others. But reading the Abhidhammic and commentarial literature, Ven. Analayo suggests that we can direct mindfulness towards the outer manifestations of others (facial expressions, posture, movements, etc) so as to practice satipatthana 'externally'.

The second way of interpretating is suggested by some contemporary teachers who interpret 'internally/externally' to refer to what is inside of the body and what is on the outside of the body--i.e. the surface of the skin. I won't reproduce Ven. Analayo's arguments in detail here. But he more or less argues that while such interpretations are not entirely unfounded and have their practical benefits, they have their limits (e.g. it becomes hard to maintain such a distinction when one begins to contemplate the dhammas).

So, leaving aside the more contemporary interpretations, I have some questions about the more 'classical' way of understanding 'internally/externally'. Following the sequence stated in the Satipatthana Sutta, one first practices internal contemplation, which then becomes the basis of external contemplation. And finally one contemplates both internally and externally. Ven. Analayo thus opines that "indeed to be aware of one's feelings and reactions enables one to understand the feelings and reactions of others more easily". He adds:

'For a balanced development of awareness, this shift from the internal to the external is of considerable importance. Awareness applied only internally can lead to self-centredness. One can become excessively concerned with what happens with and within oneself while at the same time remaining unaware of how one's action and behaviour affect others. Practicing both internal and external satipatthana can prevent such lopsidedness and achieve a skillful balance between introspection and extroversion' (p. 98).

When we talk about meditation we often speak of it as a kind of introspective practice. But in light of the above, we see that it shouldn't be only introspective. Indeed, the force of introspection should propel one towards a certain extroversion, a greater sensitivity to the thoughts and feelings of others.

So my questions are: Do you actually make a conscious effort to contemplate 'externally'? Should we attempt to do so? Or is this something that happens 'naturally' as we build up the momentum of 'internal' contemplation?

Metta,
zavk

Hello friend. The point is to get the "principle" involve in it, so you will know what is happining in the external.

Thanks. Joseph Goldstein is one of the better teachers out there. His talks and writings are well worth the time spent. Also, his comments support what I have experienced in terms of the internal/external instructions: http://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1122#p14316" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

>> Do you see a man wise[enlightened/ariya]in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723

Sylvester wrote:I recall Ven Analayo equating the "internal" and the "external" satipatthanas with the first 2 of the 8 Deliverances. It was from his "The Thought World of the Pali Discourses".

Do you recall if this is available on line? He obviously talks about this on his book on satipatthana from page 94 for the next several page after. I find Goldstein's commentary and my experience credible.

>> Do you see a man wise[enlightened/ariya]in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723

The heart of the path is so simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are. That is all I do in my own practice.

Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing.

Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques to develop samadhi and many kinds of vipassana. But it all comes back to this-just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle.

Ven Analayo's stuff is always worth reading. In looking through the two texts linked, I find nothing that runs counter to his statements in his book, SATiPATTHANA: The Direct Path to Realization, page 94-102.

>> Do you see a man wise[enlightened/ariya]in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723

Sylvester wrote:I recall Ven Analayo equating the "internal" and the "external" satipatthanas with the first 2 of the 8 Deliverances. It was from his "The Thought World of the Pali Discourses".

Do you recall if this is available on line? He obviously talks about this on his book on satipatthana from page 94 for the next several page after. I find Goldstein's commentary and my experience credible.

Sorry, Tilt. Mine is the hard copy, and I don't recall that particular publisher (a Vipassana society in Malaysia) offering an online version.

I think you might find the treatment in his opus magnum more detailed, as the internal/external satipatthanas were discussed only very briefly in Thought World, in the context of the 8 Deliverances.

I just realised that I have an online edition of Thought World marked (2), published this year by The Buddhist Assn of the USA. It has a very different content from the earlier one I was referring to. Perhaps no (1) might be listed in his online bibliography with a link?

I am not quite sure what you are pointing to here. I do not see anything in that discussion that runs contrary to his discussion in his book or to what Goldstein said in his talk, but maybe you could cut and paste a quote or two.

>> Do you see a man wise[enlightened/ariya]in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723

rowyourboat wrote:I think the suttas are quite clear without us having to generate our own theories which can muddy the waters a bit:

§ 32.
He remains focused internally on the mind in & of itself — ardent,
alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to
the world. As he remains focused internally on the mind in & of
itself, he becomes rightly concentrated there, and rightly clear.
Rightly concentrated there and rightly clear, he gives rise to
knowledge & vision externally of the minds of others.

— DN 18

This recalls me of one time while I was in a retreat, a kind of loose one as we could talk quite freely among yogis... I was listening to a yogi friend and suddenly, for one second or so, I literally experienced her mind process as if it was mine. Be sure, I don't have psychic powers, so to speak, but the relevance of this experience was this: at the same time there was a very clear, intuitive understanding that "this is just a process, not her". Later, when I discussed with the Teacher about this experience, and he told some of his own, he explained that when we are clear about our own mind, then we can understand others' mind without telepathy, because ultimately, there's no one, only body and mind's process.

So that's how I now understand "internally and externally". it all has to do with UNDERSTANDING of ultimate reality, where the border between you and I, in and out is disolved.

So, the answer to the question of the OP is quite clear from the quote above: first be rightly concentrated and rightly clear in and of one self, then knowledge and vision of other's mind will arise.

Internal could be equated with ones own personal experience, and external by inference and observation. The understanding gained from contemplating the rise and fall of material aggregate externally could be applied to yourself internally. This method is taught by the Buddha to Rahula.http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html